Iowa Board of Regents Approves ISU’s Frederiksen Court Expansion

01 Nov 2012

active

AMES, Iowa—On Oct. 25, the Iowa Board of Regents approved a plan for Iowa State University’s Department of Residence to expand the Frederiksen Court apartment community. The expansion will add six new apartment buildings, creating an additional 720 housing spaces for ISU students. Construction is set to begin in November with two buildings slated to be ready for student occupancy by the beginning of the fall 2013 semester.

“Over the past two years, demand for on-campus housing has exceeded permanent housing spaces resulting in students living in interim housing, typically den spaces. We view this demand as the highest compliment as we do not require students to live on campus,” said Department of Residence Director Pete Englin.

Phase one of construction will see the completion of two buildings on the north side of Frederiksen Court, adding 240 housing spaces for the fall 2013 semester. The remaining four buildings, located on the south side of the community, will be available in spring 2014 bringing an additional 480 beds. The Frederiksen Court expansion project will take campus occupancy from its current 10,179 to 10,899 permanent spaces.

“Student leaders communicated that our focus on student success and offering student-friendly contracts makes our program attractive,” said Englin. “They demanded we explore how to accommodate every returning and new student desiring on-campus housing in permanent spaces, freeing up gathering spaces for all residents.”

In addition to academically-friendly contracts, students living on campus receive academic, emotional, and social support from residence life staff that results in higher GPAs, a greater likelihood of graduating from ISU, a deeper involvement in campus life, and more leadership opportunities. Expanding Frederiksen Court gives more ISU students the opportunity to have an on-campus experience and is a financially viable way to add more student housing.

“We chose to expand Frederiksen Court given the tremendous interest from returning on-campus residents year after year to live there,” Englin said. “Additionally, we won’t have to raise anyone’s rates as construction and operating costs will be covered using revenue from the residents occupying the new apartments at current rates. The construction schedule for these apartments allows us to respond quickly so we can best serve everyone who wants to live on campus.”

The buildings will be similar to the current Frederiksen Court buildings. Each apartment will house four students and will have four bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen. Assignments to the two buildings coming online in fall 2013 will follow the Department of Residence’s traditional recontracting process. Assignments to the remaining buildings will be determined based on when those buildings will be available for occupancy. The new buildings will be billed at the same rate as the current buildings.

The six new buildings do displace some parking. The construction plan includes new parking lots to maintain the current rate of parking spaces for Frederiksen Court residents.